Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is phasing in his new “school posse” program this week, focusing on 52 schools in the county. While some parents and teachers are happy about it, many others are less than thrilled. Muddying the waters is the lack of identification of the volunteer force. Well, that, and the fact that some of them have criminal backgrounds.

The posses began to take their places on Monday, but the schools had little information about the men who are supposedly protecting their students. One principal spoke of confusion about two men in an umarked car and plain clothes patrolling around the school. Another principal said that they were told there would be men patrolling but nothing else, including whether or not each school gets its own detail.

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The thing that has many detractors worried most is that some of Joe’s volunteers have criminal backgrounds. A spokesman said that some of these men have “… faced disciplinary action in connection with their crimes, either avoided felony convictions or petitioned to have their records expunged, and are now moving on.” The fact that the crimes these men may have committed are not made public is troubling, considering the positions in which they are being placed. There are about 3,000 volunteers in Arpaio’s program and, though they will not be on the campus proper, the proximity and access they will have to students makes their criminal pasts worrisome to critics.

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The patrols will not be on the school campuses but patrolling the area in cars and, one assumes, on foot. Nobody questions their intentions, however it is disquieting that the minds of these men appear to be squarely set on using their guns to deal with any emergencies that may arise. There is a reason vigilantism is illegal. This is not the Wild West, no matter how much Sheriff Joe fantasizes that it is. With 3,000 armed men, some of whom are criminals — Joe is not being very transparent about who they are and what they did — prowling around looking for reasons to use their Joe-given authority and their guns, what could possibly go wrong?

It's not necessarily a bad thing that the posses will to some degree be comprised of convicts -- given what prisoners do to child molesters and similar criminals when they get into prison, even convicts despise those who harm children. That doesn't necessarily mean there won't be other sorts of problems, of course.

The great thing about American federalism is that state and local authorities can implement a wide variety of policies independently, with the rest of the political units across the country watching. If the policies work then other units can adopt them; if not, only the single unit that adopted them suffers (typically) and the rest of the units learn a lesson.

That said, if I were a policymaker I would opt for either of the following before relying on "posses": training and arming just a few school officials, relying on occasional police protection (randomized beats and a cop or two stationed at big events), or even seek to establish a program with local National Guard units to have soldiers stationed in plainclothes with basic sidearms (Americans would go insane at the idea of soldiers in full battlegear mucking about in schools, plus it would probably be unnecessary).

This gets tricky, depending on the state, the sheriff can summons individuals he wants and effectively deputize them which I'm guessing is what he is doing here and that's totally legal..

If some guy not in uniform came up to me and started asking questions perhaps even asking for ID I think I'd be just as likely to tell him to piss off. I guess it depends on how the approached the situation.